Senate panel down to the tough budget choices

Senate panel wrestles with how to provide heating fuel assistance next year

Apr. 26, 2013

Written by

Free Press Staff Writer

MONTPELIER — Revenues never seems to match up to spending requests, forcing government budget-writing panels to make tough political choices. That’s where the Senate Appropriations Committee found itself Friday.

“No matter how much money we have, we always have this exercise,” said Sen. Richard Sears, D-Bennington, as the committee weighed a list of pending requests against the small amount of money — $800,000 — they had yet to allocate in a budget of $5.3 billion.

One of the toughest choices the seven senators on the committee faced Friday afternoon was how to provide sufficient funding for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program next year given that federal support would decline.

Gov. Peter Shumlin proposed $6 million in state dollars to supplement a federal grant estimated at $15.7 million, which would result in a nearly $300 decrease in the average benefit.

Members of the Senate Appropriations Committee searched Friday for ways to bump up next year’s benefit closer to the $900 average of the past two winters.

Sen. Richard Westman, R-Cambridge, suggested tapping a weatherization fund, noting it contained $17.39 million, including $6 million from a settlement with Green Mountain Power Corp.

“It’s not my first choice to go to weatherization,” Westman said, but he added, “I want to make sure LIHEAP has enough money.”

Sen. Diane Snelling, R-Chittenden, worried about tapping weatherization funding — even for a good purpose.

“Weatherization is a long-term investment,” she said, explaining that insulating and increasing the energy efficiency of homes should have an impact on the amount of fuel assistance that low-income Vermonters need.

The committee turned to a recent package of changes the Shumlin administration proposed to the eligibility for crisis fuel assistance that would save about $1.8 million that could be used to augment the $600 projected seasonal benefit.

Currently, eligible households may receive up to three emergency fuel deliveries in a heating season if they run out and have no means to pay to keep the heat on in their homes.

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The administration proposed allowing just one crisis delivery for anyone receiving fuel assistance benefits and two deliveries for those ineligible for the season-long fuel aid. That would save $1.4 million in crisis funding that could be used to bring next year’s average benefit up to $740.

Advocates grimace

Karen Lafayette, a former Burlington House member and now a lobbyist representing organizations that serve low income and disabled Vermonters, is a constant presence when the House and Senate write budgets, and Friday she stood at the front of a crowd jammed near the door of the committee room.

She listened intently as the committee weighed the proposals the administration had made and frowned at the panel’s choice.

Speaking later, Lafayette suggested the administration and now the Senate budget writers were taking money from “where the most dramatic need is.”

“We are pitting one low-income population against another,” she argued. “That is what this whole budget year has been about: moving money, robbing Peter to pay Paul.”

She didn’t think tapping weatherization funding was the solution, either, she said, noting the long-term importance of addressing high energy consumption in drafty old homes and apartments.

“It is unfortunate that the revenue box isn’t sufficient to make some of the investments we should be making,” Lafayette said.

Not done yet

“Do we want to change the number of times a family comes in for crisis funding?” asked Senate Appropriations Chairwoman Jane Kitchel, D-Caledonia.

“We do,” Westman replied.

The rest of the committee agreed to adopt the administration’s proposal.

The administration had suggested a further limitation on who would be eligible for crisis funding — only households in which someone is elderly, disabled or under 6 years old.

“Does anyone want to go beyond what we have done?” Kitchel asked, referring to the second restriction.

“No,” members mumbled.

The committee moved next to a list of funding requests they had put on hold until they had decided on spending levels for core government operations. The requests totaled $3 million and didn’t include the $1.6 million that would be needed to bring the heating assistance benefit up to the $900 target the committee wanted to meet. The tally of their spending showed they had about $800,000 available to meet these requests.

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The committee pared the list, shrinking some allocations and jettisoning others altogether, such as a gaming industry promotion grant of $75,000 and a health care finance study priced at $50,000.

When they were done, they had spent about half the $800,000.

Westman brought up LIHEAP again and the use of weatherization funds.

“The other option would be to walk across the hall and ask for $11 million,” Westman said, but no one took his suggestion seriously. The Senate Finance Committee meets across the hall from the Appropriations Committee and finalized a $10 million tax package Friday. Westman had reminded the budget writers that they could ask Finance to raise $1 million more.

The committee left the LIHEAP question unanswered, choosing to adjourn until Monday, when the panel will make a host of tough decisions.

Before they packed up their papers for the weekend, Finance Commissioner Jim Reardon planted a seed of doubt about tapping the weatherization money to fill the LIHEAP funding gap.

He said the settlement agreement with Green Mountain Power Corp. required the state to continue its historical funding level of the program — referred to as “maintenance of effort.”

Westman said he thought fund contained more than was needed to meet the maintenance of effort requirement.

“I don’t think so,” Reardon countered.

In addition to making a final decision about fuel assistance funding, the committee has yet to choose whether it would go along with changes the Shumlin administration wants to make the Reach Up program.

Reach Up assists unemployed parents. The administration wants to set a five-year limit on the length of time families could receive financial benefits under Reach Up and establish a tougher consequence for parents who fail to meet the programs requirements.

David Yacavone, commissioner of the Department for Children and Families, estimates the changes would save the state $3.4 million, but not until the budget year beginning July 1, 2014 because the changes wouldn’t take effect until next April.

Advocates for low-income Vermonters have pressed lawmakers to reject these changes.